To what extent have queer people been included in the Indian state since Modi’s election?

Abstract

This paper analyses queer people’s inclusion into the Indian state since the election of Narendra Modi in 2014. Queer people have been increasingly included into the Indian state after the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 2018, with a rise seen in queer affinities with Hindutva and a growing logic of queer inclusion predicated on stratified ‘consumer-citizenship’. Through analysing hijras and urban gay men and women, this research shows queer complicities with the Hindutva and neoliberalism that serve as the two key planks of the Indian state under Modi and thus define the extent and form of queer inclusion. This paper argues that queer people are included within the state to a moderate extent, where although formal legal inclusion is lacking, there is significant investment from queers in the ideological foundations of the Indian state and an inclusion into the symbolism of India’s developmental future. The creation of a Muslim and low-class queer ‘other’ assists Hindu and middle-class queer inclusion by defining an idealised queer citizen that the state is safe to include.